D. venusta 'albino'

[Dave Evans]

May 11, 2014 16:57:35 GMT ICPS-bob said:

According to Jan Schlauer's CP Database, D. coccicaulis and D. venusta are synonyms of D. natalensis. Further, Andreas Fleischmann has stated that everything in cultivation (>99% of all plants) labelled as "D. dielsiana" actually belongs to D. natalensis. Andreas went through the Photo Finder and estimated which photos he thought were D. dielsiana and which were questionable.
cpphotofinder.com/drosera-dielsiana-7071.html
cpphotofinder.com/drosera-dielsiana-questionable-21.html

Could anyone do this for coccicaulis, venusta, and natalensis? Do the splitters have good reason to separate these closely related plants into different species? How can a person determine which they are actually growing?

D. coccicaulis is D. venusta. D. natalensis is probably its closest relative. D. dielsiana is very small, like D. brevifolia.

D. venusta is more robust than D. natalensis and pretty much looks like what I would expect for a D. natalensis that had it chromosomes doubled. Everything is bigger, but rather similar.

[Dave Evans]

May 12, 2014 5:55:15 GMT tanukimo said:

I hope this doesn't turn into something like the debate over whether Drosera binata and related species are all one species or not or whether "Drosera tracyii" is just a subspecies of Drosera filiformis.

Well if that doesn't happen, how do we learn?

[Dave Evans]

May 13, 2014 1:44:10 GMT Not a Number said:

"cocci" could also refer to the color scarlet - coccos (κοκκοϛ) being the berry of the scarlet oak, used as a red dye.

So the name would translate as "Sundew with stem the same red as scarlet oak seed"? Is the stem red or do they mean the flower stem?

[Dave Evans]

May 9, 2014 1:46:25 GMT coline said:

Hi, I have recently found this plant, at the moment I'm planting the seeds, but I wonder, is this plant of the photo a true D. venusta/coccicaulis albino form, or could it be some other species?

It could be. There have been several recently named species from South Africa and South America.

However, the coloration is the exact same as what is seen in D. capillaris 'Emerald’s Envy’ and the idea this color morph sponteously occurred in cultivated seed matches very well with William Joseph Clemens finding a small patch of D. capillaris ‘Emerald’s Envy’. www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v35n1p12_13.html

Also the name 'Albino' is already taken for the whitish D. capensis.

[tanukimo]

May 15, 2014 5:05:42 GMT Dave Evans said:

I thought it was "alba" not "albino."

[Dave Evans]

Alba just means white. Some folks that like keeping things overly simple like to call any and every white plant or plant with white areas as alba. It is a little silly actually. Every single species can have a mutation and end up with white areas and it seems rather redundant to call all of them alba...

Correctly used, Alba is generally a surname. Example: Jessica Alba.

[ICPS-bob]

May 15, 2014 5:10:22 GMT tanukimo said:

I thought it was "alba" not "albino."

The official registered cultivar name for the white anthocyanin-free D. capensis is Drosera 'Albino' (Borret & Farrow) if it meets the following description:

After "growing-on" it became obvious that one plant was unusual for it presented a white flower and not the usual pink colour. The plant was propagated further by leaf cuttings and seed and was found to breed "true" (i.e. white flowers were produced). Another and probably more significant feature of the described form is the lack of red colouration in the leaves and tentacles under various lighting conditions, including strong sun.

See:
www.omnisterra.com/bot/cp_home.cgi?name=albino&submit=Submit+Query&search=all

[Not a Number]

May 15, 2014 4:54:25 GMT Dave Evans said:

May 13, 2014 1:44:10 GMT Not a Number said:

"cocci" could also refer to the color scarlet - coccos (κοκκοϛ) being the berry of the scarlet oak, used as a red dye.

So the name would translate as "Sundew with stem the same red as scarlet oak seed"? Is the stem red or do they mean the flower stem?

That's the $64K question. On the plants I have that were labeled Drosera venusta "coccicaulis" the stem is not visible being covered with a skirt of dead leaves. The flower stem will get red in good sunlight but so will those on D. trinervia, D. aliciae, D. admirabilis and even D. capensis.

"Scarlet Stem" makes a little sense but not a whole lot more than "Berry Stem".

[Dave Evans]

I think someone just found some more D. venusta but didn't recognize it and started calling it D. coccicaulis. Also, the individual plants only live for a couple of years, so if people's flowering plants are being crossed every which way in greenhouses and collections, those out crossed seeds/plants can easily be hybrids.

People have this idea that sundew hybrids don't make seed... Which is 100% false. All plants try to make seed, some just can't, right now.

[Not a Number]

What is the story behind "coccicaulis"? The most widely circulated explanation I've read is that Debbert used it as a cover name to throw people off track before publishing D. venusta. Another story I recall reading was that some nursery owner or vendor made the name up.

Does Jan Schlauer know the background on this name? Is Paul Debbert still living?

[coline]

I would really like to know why that name exists also!